Dr. Ranjana Srivastava

Dr. Ranjana Srivastava, OAM, FRACP

Dr. Ranjana Srivastava is a medical oncologist with a special interest in geriatric oncology, which explores the unique needs and preferences of elderly cancer patients. She has a keen interest in mentoring medical trainees in the public health system. She is also a Fulbright scholar and an award-winning writer on medicine and society encompassing the important issues of doctor-patient communication and patient empowerment. She is a visiting faculty member at the University of Chicago where she delivers a series of talks on the art of medicine.

Dr. Srivastava graduated from Monash University with first class honours, completed her postgraduate training in Melbourne, Australia and is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of Physicians. In 2004 she was awarded the prestigious Fulbright award to undertake a fellowship in medical ethics and doctor-patient communication at the University of Chicago's MacLean Centre for Clinical Medical Ethics. She was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award by Monash University, where she is an adjunct associate professor. In 2017, her contribution to the field of doctor-patient communication was recognised with an Order of Australia.

Dr. Srivastava is a widely-published writer and public speaker and has won several writing awards. She is the author of four books and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Prize. Her book, Dying for a Chat: The Communication Breakdown between Doctors and Patients won the prestigious Human Rights Commission Literature Prize. She has written two books on navigating a diagnosis of cancer and surviving its aftermath and is currently working on a fifth book.

Dr. Srivastava is a frequent contributor to the New England Journal of Medicine, where she has published more than a dozen essays on the art of medicine. A former writer for Fairfax Media, she is now a regular columnist for The Guardian on medicine and humanity. Her columns appear worldwide and are used to train healthcare professionals.

To read Dr. Srivastava’s publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, please click here